Alteration
by Alwayssnarky
Summary: When I woke up in a world very different from the one I read, I knew I'd have to struggle to survive. But there's a lot I can't remember. Like why I'm here to begin with. Or what my powers are. Worm CYOA AU.
1. 1-1

_An interesting choice. Amuse me, human. I grow weary of this cycle._

A voice echoed through my head, and I woke up on my back in an incredibly hot building. The room spun as I clambered quickly to my feet, wincing in pain from where the floor had already begun to burn me, and swiftly took stock of my surroundings. I was in one of the higher floors of some sort of office building. The room I was in was a small, featureless square, collapsed where there should have been a desk. A large chunk had been smashed out of one of the outer walls of the room, the debris tearing through into the floors below. The rest of the rooms around me that I could see were filled with flames, licking the doors to my refuge. Cautiously, I crept to the hole in floor, hoping that I could manage an escape that way. But luck was not on my side today, and the room below me was already a blazing inferno. There was another building a few feet away from mine, its' windows shattered but otherwise intact. The heat in the room continued to build as I grew to realize that my only way out of this room alive would be to jump to the next building and escape through there.

I stared out of the window nervously at the jump I would have to make. I had never been the most athletic of people, and my eyes scanned the room once again in the vain hope I would see a board or something I could use to to walk across. But there was nothing to use, and the still-growing heat in the room reminded me that it was now or never. I sighed, backing up to the part of the room farthest from the hole, took a deep breath, and charged it, swerving slightly to avoid the hole in the floor. When I reached the edge of the room, at the last possible second before my feet would find nothing but air, my heart pounding in my chest, I leapt.

For the briefest of moments I felt like I was flying as I sailed through the air, and I stretched my arms out, desperately trying to reach for the ledge on the other side as I began to descend from my leap. My hands slammed into the floor of the building, and I desperately scrambled for a grip on the slippery, polished floor. However, the rest of my body continued to fall, and my grip failed, my hands flailing desperately above me I plummeted. _No! No no no no!_ my thoughts echoed over and over as I fell, gaining speed as I passed the first few stories. The ground, tiny and empty of people, began to rise up at me. _Fly! Stop!_ _ **SOMETHING!**_ I thought in a panic, shutting my eyes and hoping desperately for a miracle. I opened them several seconds later, as I realized that I was not dead, the sensation of wind rushing past me having faded to a halt. I hung in midair about twenty stories up, my fall having halted itself without cause or reason. _Up._ I thought numbly to myself, and I began to rise slowly, drifting further from the ground that I had thought a minute ago was going to be my death. _Left._ I thought. _Right._ My body drifting in each direction slowly at first, then a bit faster as I began to grow in confidence. I grinned.

"I'm flyyyying!" I shouted cheerfully as I zipped in loops in the skies over the city. I laughed at the wind rushing past me as I flew towards the ground, cutting off before I reached the rooftops below as I circled up and began to rise again, before repeating the cycle as I zipped down once again. Abruptly my reverie was broken as a series of explosions rocked the building I had attempted to jump into, tearing off part of the roof as a person encircled in flames flew away, barely managing to outpace the explosion. An inhumanly bulky man sneered at them from the remains of the rooftop as I drifted closer, putting a building between us and straining to hear.

"You should have known better to fight me in an area I've had time to prepare, Belial. I'll tear you apart!" He laughed as another set of explosions tore through the area above the burning person, forcing them to dash downwards quickly to avoid them.

"Big words coming from you." Belial snarled back, hurling a blast of fire at the man on the rooftop. "I see you're still afraid to fight me without one of the serums from your pet tinker." The ludicrously muscled man was in motion almost before the bolt was hurled, though, and he leapt off the rooftop as it hit. Unlike me, he cleared the gap with ease, landing seemingly effortlessly on the rooftop of another skyscraper. I realized too late that from there he could see me from his new vantage point, and suppressed a yelp as I ducked away from the gaze he fixed upon me. He laughed.

"And you dare to call _me_ a coward? I can see your friend hiding over there. Good effort on the ambush!" He shouted, partially turning to face me "But you need a lot more practice to beat me!"

Belial sounded surprised as their gaze followed his to where I had been. "I didn't bring an ally. I'm not surprised someone as incompetent as you would take hallucinogens before a fight like this. Or is your precious drug tinker finally failing you?" Belial chuckled a little at that, lazily hurling another bolt of fire at the man. He evaded it again, leaping onto the building I had been hiding behind. I bolted, dashing downwards and away from my newfound pursuit.

I had reached the abandoned streets below and flown a block away before I dared to look back for pursuit. The good news was that musclehead had lost me. The bad news was that the burning person had seen me, and was flying towards me. I turned down the next street I could, and again the next chance after that, but they still continued to pursue me. _I need to disappear,_ I thought to myself. Seconds later, my flight began to slow and stop, and I barely managed to place my feet on the ground as it vanished outright, dropping me a foot to the ground below. I stumbled and fell, rolling to a halt sprawled on my back. My pursuer landed up the street from me, revealing a woman in some kind of demonic mask. She looked up and down the street, and I could swear her gaze passed over me multiple times, but she somehow failed to notice me, and her flames returned before she flew off, snarling something about wasted time under her breath. Not comprehending, but grateful for the reprieve, I staggered to my feet, before looking down and realizing they had somehow disappeared. A quick reach down confirmed that they were still there, although I could not see my hands either. I had somehow managed to turn invisible. I focused on it vanishing, and it did, before I enabled it again just in case they were still around. _Well,_ I thought to myself, _time to figure out just what the hell is going on._


	2. 1-2

I wasn't until I drew near an area of the city with people in it that I relaxed slightly, and released a breath that I didn't realize I had been holding. Much to my surprise, there were a lot of people grouped around the edge of the territory I had been in, which seemed to have been walled off crudely with plywood and parked cars. Many of them were staring at the plumes of smoke coming from the battle I had been an unwilling part of. _Ok, try to blend in until you know what the hell's going on_ I thought to myself as I clambered slowly over the makeshift barricade, trying as hard as I could not to nudge anything or give any kind of indicator that there was someone there. Once through the barricade, I ducked into a nearby alley, made sure there was no one around to see, and let myself fade back into existence.

"That was cool! Do it again." I spun around in shock, falling on my ass as I saw the three people - people who had **not** been there a minute ago - standing behind me. Two of them - a tall, thin black guy and a darker skinned girl with dyed purple hair covering one eye – were laughing, while a shorter blonde girl stood behind them, looking more nervous than anything. The guy recovered first, his laughter petering out as his friend was still doubled over. Still chuckling, he walked over to me and offered his hand. "Heh. Sorry about that, I didn't think we'd catch you quite so off guard. I guess you're new to this too." I took his hand and climbed to my feet.

"You could say that. Now, for a more important question, how the hell did you do that!?" the girl at the back stepped forward.

"That was me. I can teleport through water." Purple hair spoke up next, having finally stopped laughing at me long enough to hold a conversation.

"We usually teleport here out of our territory since it's nice and isolated." She said. "We weren't expecting to run into anyone else like this." I sighed.

"So this was just bad luck. Sums up today for me pretty well I guess."

"Hey! I consider us very good luck! I'm lucky!" She snapped back, smirking slightly.

I chuckled. "If you say so. You're certainly an improvement over the crazy bastards trying to set me on fire or blow me up." They all looked more than a little surprised at this.

"You were at the fight between Belial and Distortion!?" The guy asked, in the sort of tone you would use if you were asking someone if they had just bungee jumped into a volcano.

"I...guess?" I said. "I caught Belial's name, so I guess musclehead would be Distortion?" they all laughed a bit at this, before the girl in the back spoke up again.

"You guess? You mean you don't know." _Well, so much for my cover._

"Should I? I just got here."

"You just got here, through the Exclusion Zone, without even knowing about it?" Purple Hair said. I sighed.

"How about we pretend that I just randomly fell out of the sky and have no idea what any of you are talking about at all?" Purple Hair seemed to recover from that first.

"Yeah, okay then. Let's get back to our base, I'd rather not stand around in a damp alley longer than I have to." The other agreed, walking over to the puddle. The taller girl stuck her arm out, and both of them grabbed on. They waited a minute before Purple Hair turned to me "Are you coming?" I blinked, and nodded my head before walking over to them. "Alright, grab on!" She said enthusiastically. Hesitantly, I grabbed her arm, and the world spun as the water rushed up to meet me.

What felt like minutes later, the world came back into focus, with the four of us being hurled out into a cross between a swamp and a run-down suburb. The others slowed to a halt as I went crashing to the ground yet again, rolling slightly in the middle of a cracked, flooded, and pitted road.I shook my head as I climbed to my feet, and noticed another barricade behind me, as well as an even more ramshackle one a couple of streets down. The guy seemed to guess my reaction to the place, smirking at me as I clambered to my feet.

"Welcome to home sweet cesspit. It's kind of a flooded hole in the ground, but it's ours. And it's crappy enough that no one actually wants to take it from us." Purple seemed to take joking offense to that, slapping him lightly upside the head.

"Well, _I_ like it." She said.

"You would, Ser." The short girl remarked in a stage whisper.

"Ser?" I asked.

"Right! We forgot to introduce ourselves." Purple Hair said. "I'm Serena" she gestured to the shorter girl "this is Alicia" she pointed to the guy, smirking, "and this dolt is Lance." I nodded.

"I'm _. You can call me Alex."

"That's nothing like your real name." Lance pointed out.

"Oh, isn't it?" I replied.

"No. No it isn't." Serena added. Alicia nodded in agreement.

"Meh, details, details" I shrugged. "So, you said you guys'd explain to me what's going on here?" Lance nodded.

"Okay, so, ever since Darkwalker's gang moved in here about half a year ago, the city's gone to hell. The Fifth Circle had always been active, but they were mostly low-key heists more than anything else."

"Fifth Circle?" I asked.

"Demon themed villains. It's the group Belial's in. Anyway, Darkwalker's gang hit the prison, took out the guards and let everyone out. Steroid-he's a drug tinker- triggered during their rampage, went to Distortion and they formed the Lords. Between them and Darkwalker's gang, they managed to take over almost half of the city before the PRT hit back enough to evacuate the areas they'd taken. But they're too busy fighting the Empire to focus on us, so after that they threw up their hands, built the barricade, and them and the gangs have been staring each other down ever since. "

"There's a sort of an unofficial agreement between the gangs and the PRT." Serena added. "They keep power going to the gang districts and send in food occasionally, and the gangs won't try too hard to break out of the barricaded zone." We'd started walking during this conversation, and had drawn near to a house on slightly higher ground that had managed to avoid the flooding.

"So what's up with this place? It's kind of drenched."

"That's the rest of my power." Serena said proudly. "I can turn an area into a swamp. It takes a while, but it works well with Alicia's power once I've gotten it going." Lance unlocked the door to the house, and we all went inside. The interior was not very different from the usual cramped suburban two-story, but it at least held off most of the humidity from the swamp forming outside.

"So what's the reason for this setup?" I asked. "You don't talk like you're a member of any of the gangs, but I somehow doubt the Protectorate would have any members living in a barricaded swamp."

"The gangs have been trying to recruit anyone they can to take the upper hand, so the Protectorate's telling anyone who triggers to leave the city. They even pulled the Wards and their families out."

"So why not go to them?" I asked. "Couldn't they get you out of here?" To my surprise, it was Alicia who spoke up.

"Because this is our home, and these _bastards_ have spent the last half of a year ripping it apart. I'm-I'm not going to just run away!"

"The Protectorate would just pull us out of the city, and keep leaving everyone else in here to rot!" Serena added "We're not going to let that happen."

"Which brings us to something I think we've all been wanting to ask you about." Lance chimed in. "We've been wanting to do something, but until now we haven't had any sort of heavy hitters. Or anyone whose powers help them fight at all, really. You're obviously new to this, since you don't even have a mask yet, and you seem pretty disoriented. You can live here with us, and maybe help us out in taking back the city. Deal?" I blinked in surprise.

"That's... a lot to take in." I said. "Mind if I have some time to think it over?" Serena chuckled, although the others seemed a bit annoyed.

"Heh, go ahead. I remember when he gave me the whole sales pitch. You can crash at any of the houses we're not already using. So, any but this one and the one on each side."

"Thanks." I said. "I'll pick one out and get set up." She nodded.

"Good idea, it's getting late. It's not safe to be out in the city after dark if you're past the barricades. All of the gangs have a flyer. We'll meet up here again tomorrow, try to figure things out." I nodded, thanked them again, and left, my mind full of questions.


	3. 1-3

I flicked the light on as I walked into the house I had claimed as my own, a small-two story across the street from the one I had talked with the others in. Thankfully, the unofficial agreement that Serena mentioned meant that power had been kept flowing to this part of the city. My mind spun as I walked around, taking stock of the contents of my new house. They'd mentioned the PRT, the Protectorate, and the Wards. I was in _Worm_ , or at least some version of it. But more than that, I _knew_ this somehow, just like I knew I had chosen what my powers were. But more importantly, there was even more I didn't know, like what city this was, or who the PRT was apparently at war with, or even what freaking year it was!. I shook my head, snapping back to reality as I realized that my freakout had briefly grown bad enough for my powers (whatever they were) to form something destructive, tearing a chunk out of the wall next to me.

 _That really is the worst part._ I mused to myself, sitting down in one of the less-withered chairs in the dining room. More than the things I didn't know, there were things that had actually been taken from me, leaving a thought-shaped hole in my memory. I knew I had chosen my powers, strengths and weakneses alike, but how I knew this, where I had done it, or even what my choices had _been_ , all of that had been taken from me. And there was something else...something I had figured out, something _important_ , that had been taken away.

I stood up, moving into deeper inside the house. One of the bedrooms, a rather crappy guest room, happened to lack windows, making it by far the best to covertly practice using my powers. Maybe this way, I could figure out what exactly they were. I began with the destructive one from before, which I had not cycled out into any other ability. I focused on the bed, and swung my arm in a claw shape. In an instant, the bed ripped apart in a similar pattern, large gashes tearing into the bedspread and ripping through the wood at the bottom.

 _Ice_ , I thought, and felt something _shift_ as I pointed, a thin icicle forming in front of my arm and firing into the wall, where it shattered. I attempted to spread this focus around, forming ice spikes on the floor, but nothing more than a thin layer of frost settled around the room, noticably dropping the temperature. _Maybe a limit to the power of ones I can change to?_ I thought, changing my focus again. _Darkness._ Things _shifted_ again, the lighting in the room dimming noticeably. I focused, attempting to dim the room further, but I immediately met with with resistance; the sensation of trying and failing to push at something unseen. Changing gears, I attempted to concentrate the darkness, and it fled the half of the room I was in as the rest darkened considerably. I concentrated it still more, until I was left with a pitch-black blob of darkness about the size of a person.

 _One final test,_ I thought, moving into the nearby bathroom and standing in front of the mirror. _Shapeshifting_ , I thought, and immediately felt another _shift_. I willed my face to change, and soon after recoiled in surprise as my face began to tingle, my features blurring and swimming in my reflection. Hurriedly, I reversed the changes, _shifting_ my powers back to invisibility. _I took that a lot worse than I always thought I would,_ I remarked to myself.

I pondered the results of my tests as I left the destroyed guest room, ascending the stairs to investigate the second floor. Rather than find out what my powers were, it seemed I had instead stumbled over a list of what they could be. There were harsh limits, restrictions barring me from any more powerful versions of what I was able to do, but my versatility alone could prove useful. Having located a bedroom, I entered, and shut the door behind me, immediately flopping onto the bed and falling into an exhausted, fitful sleep.

I awoke to a burst of incoherent swearing as an alarm clock, abandoned when the owners of this house fled, activated. Growling, I fumbled with it, trying and failing to switch it off before giving up and yanking the cord from the wall. I yawned, staggering down to the kitchen I had located the night before and wrenched the refridgerator open, where it took a depressingly long period of staring blankly into the mostly-empty fridge for the day before's events to come rushing back to me. Rubbing my eyes, I winced as I staggered out the front door into the too-bright light of the day.

Serena stood outside the house across from me, focusing intently on a puddle which, as I watched, began to expand and deepen until it was more than twice the size it had initially been. Apparently satisfied, she looked up, noticed me, and waved me over. She smirked as I got closer, having noticed my unkempt state.

"Sleep well?" she asked. I responded by flipping her the bird, at which she just laughed. Almost to my surprise, I found myself laughing along with her, the sheer absurdity of everything that had happened to me up to this point hitting me in a rush. As her laughter petered out, she walked inside. I followed close behind, noticing as I did the other two sitting at the table. I smirked and raised an eyebrow.

"Were you guys waiting around, just for me?"

"Full of yourself, aren't you?" Serena asked, chuckling at her own joke. "But, sadly more seriously, we were."

Lance turned to me "Have you thought over what we talked about?" He asked "We could really use someone who'd be able to help." My thoughts spun briefly. I had powers, and didn't want to go villain, so it was either this or the Protectorate. But the Protectorate was controlled by Cauldron, and I preferred to stay out of their notice as long as possible. Being under their noses would make it a lot harder, especially since, as I realized then, I had no official identity to claim. The thought briefly occurred to me of being a rogue, but I dismissed that almost immediately. Still, just the four of us wouldn't be enough. We'd have to convince the PRT to break the deadlock. Still, the three of them had been nice to me, and that was something I'd gladly repay.

"Depends what you want me to do." I said "But I'd be willing to help out." All three of them brightened up immediately.

"Great!" Lance said "Glad to have you on the team. We were going to head into the safer parts of the town for some food, and figure out a plan. Sound good?" I nodded, then a pleasant thought occurred to me.

"Is there a mug around here?" I asked. Serena nodded a bit confusedly and pointed to a cabinet. I walked over and grabbed one. _Coffee_. I thought hopefully, but nothing happened. Damnit. I stared at the cup forlornly.

What are you doing?" Alicia asked.

"Powers testing." I muttered glumly. "I'll explain later. There any good coffee shops around here?"

"There's a nice one on Fifth." Alicia said.

"Works for me!" Serena exclaimed, and Lance nodded in agreement. "Lets get going!" We filed out of the house, back into the city.


	4. 1-4

My invisibility active again, I was the first sent through the portal as we reentered the city. "Clear." I whispered, and deactivated my power as the others emerged from the puddle a second later.

Alicia smiled as the three of them stepped through. "Thanks, but you didn't need to check. I can look through water, remember?"

I blinked. "No, I don't. No one ever told me that."

"Yes I did." Serena chimed in.

"No you didn't." I replied.

"Yes I did."

"No."

"Yes."

"Argh, I'm too tired for this." I growled, giving up. Serena pumped her fist in triumph.

Alicia chuckled. "If you two are quite finished?"

"Oh, I suppose."

"If I must."

Lance sighed, holding his head in his hand. "What have I gotten myself into?" He asked himself.

"I'm hilarious and you know it!" Serena shouted. "The shop's over there. Race you!" She took off out of the alley. I bolted after her, the others following close behind. Athletics, I thought, and things shifted as I put on a burst of speed, my powers shifting my balance to accommodate for it. I pulled ahead of her, but then stopped short as I realized an unfortunate fact; I had no idea where the shop we were racing to was. Laughing, she sprinted past me, dashed across the street, and walked through a slightly hidden door with the words 'Java Hut' written over it. The others caught up to me, and we walked across the street and into the building.

"I won!" Serena shouted cheerfully as we walked into the building. He voice dropped into a whisper, "Even though you used your powers." she said to me.

"How did you know I did that?" I asked.

She grinned. "I didn't.

I stared blankly at her for a moment. "Can't believe I fell for that." Shaking my head at myself, I walked past her over to the shop counter.

The coffee shop was surprisingly bare, with about a quarter of the space taken up by the counter and the kitchen. The majority of the rest was empty, carpeted space, with a few comfortable-looking tables and chairs in the back. As it was, the shop was empty except for us and the workers. I fumbled in my pocket for my wallet, and internally winced as I opened it when I realized that neither of my cards would work here-they were linked to the bank accounts of someone who simply did not exist in this world. I arrived at the counter, and ordered the largest black coffee I could with the few dollars I had kept on hand. I felt marginally more human as I sipped it, walking over to the corner of the room where the rest of the group had sat.

"Quieter than I'd expected." I remarked, sitting in the unclaimed chair at their table.

Lance shrugged "The owners like it quiet, so they don't advertise too much. It's a good place to talk freely when we want to be out of our base." He turned to me. "So, what is your power, anyway? And why were you testing it on a random coffee cup?"

I chuckled and shrugged "Mate, I don't even know anymore. I've swapped it to at least seven or eight things." They were all a bit taken aback by this.

Serena was the first to respond "A Trump? Cool!" She somehow managed to whisper and shout at the same time.

I smirked. "It's not bad. I've got some pretty harsh strength limits though. And I apparently can't conjure up coffee. It's kind of...hard to control, in a way. I feel like I've just been handed an extremely complicated device and no manual."

Lance raised an eyebrow, "That's strange."

"Why's that?" I asked.

It was Alicia who answered, "Most powers are instinctive, like a sixth sense or something. There're a few that are harder to control, but those are the less lucky Case 53s." I hadn't remembered that from reading Worm, but now that I heard it it sounded right. Another mystery to add to the list, then, along with 'how did I get here?' and 'who stole my memories?'.

"So," I said, changing the subject "you guys were talking about starting to attack the gangs. I'm presuming you have a plan for how to do this?"

Lance nodded to Alicia "We were thinking of starting with one of the patrols that goes around the edges of each gang's territory. We can't really hit anything more significant until we find out where any of their bases actually are. So we figured that we'd take out one of the patrols, then either bribe or scare them into giving up one of their bases."

I nodded, "Makes sense, I guess. We should probably try to avoid enemy capes if possible. Any preference as to which gang to hit?"

"We were thinking the Lords." Alicia said. "Fifth Circle has a lot of ex-military, and Darkwalker's gang is way better equipped than it has any right to be. As long as no one has any of Steroid's serums, this is the safest option."

"Gotcha. Weird name for a street gang, though." I quipped.

Serena sighed "It comes from the term 'drug lords'."

I facepalmed as I processed that. "Alright, now I'm just going to have to take them down for their insult to the concept of puns." They laughed at that. "I guess I'll need a costume, come to think of it."

Lance nodded "Good point. We can grab some body armour at a surplus shop, no one looks twice at people buying that anymore."

I nodded. "Works for me, if you guys have a spare mask or something."

Lance nodded "We have a few throwaways."

"One things I should add." I said. "There was an...incident back where I used to live, it's why I'm here now. Long story short, I don't actually have any money. I'll pay you back once I -"

Lance cut me off with a wave of his hand "Don't worry about it. You agreed to help three people you've know for a day. The least we can do is make you a little safer for it."

I nodded and smiled. "Thanks. I appreciate it." I finished my coffee, and stood, "Shall we get going?" The others stated their agreements, and we headed out into the street.


	5. 1-5

I tugged my new mask on over my face as I prepared myself for the night's activities. The body armour was a little tight at points, but it seemed sturdy enough. Hopefully, I wasn't going to have to test it out. Finally, I pulled my hood over my face. That had been a last minute addition, a cheap hoodie with an interesting arcane-looking design I had decided would fit well with my costume. I walked out of my house, over to where the others were standing, already having changed into their costumes.

Theirs were all less hastily-thrown together than mine, although not by much. Serena wore a thin, blue-and grey bodysuit with a cheap silver crown on her head, and was holding a taser, with a couple more spares holstered at her sides. Alicia's costume was a muted blue set of tights, with the image of an eye with a drop of water for a pupil painted on the front. Lance's costume amounted to a modified set of police armour, painted black with any identifying words or images stripped from it. A set of spare magazines was slung across his chest, presumably reloads for the pistol he had strapped to his waist. All three of them had on similar cheap domino masks to my own.

Lance looked up as I approached, and handed me a pair of zip-ties. "Good, you're here. Eye's still tracking their patrols, we'll get started once she finds an isolated one."

"Eye?" I asked.

"Our cape names. Poseidon's Eye," he gestured to Alicia

"Marsh Queen!" Serena interjected, grinning and pointing at herself. That explained the crown at least.

"And I'm DJ Dream." Lance finished, recovering from the interruption."

I couldn't help myself. "DJ Dream? Really?"

He rolled his eyes. "Not you too."

"Hey, I'm just sayin'"

"Then what's your name, o high-and-mighty Namer of Things?"

I shrugged. "Haven't picked one out yet. Just call me new guy or something, I'll know what you mean."

"New Guy? And you're complaining about my name?" He smirked.

I grinned back, "I'm a filthy hypocrite. Sue me."

Suddenly, Alicia's head snapped up and she turned to us. "Found one. There's a spot to warp to at the Clark and Lex intersection, it'll pass by there soon. Hit the front car first, try to block the other one with it. Don't let anyone escape, we want to keep our powers under wraps as much as we can. We nodded, Marsh Queen sprinting over to the pool of water nearest her. Me and Dream grabbed on to her arms, and I felt a familiar sucking sensation as we were pulled to the other side of the portal.

The three of us landed in a gutter in an abandoned city street. Marsh looked around a bit for nearby puddles and other useful pools of water, while Dream and me ducked into an abandoned storefront across the street. Marsh finished her scouting a few seconds later, and ducked into the building opposite us. I heard a dull cracking as she began to work her powers on the ground inside the building, forming a portal to jump through. Minutes ticked by in tense silence as we waited for the convoy to arrive.

Finally, what felt like hours but was really only minutes later, we glimpsed headlights moving down the street towards us. Dream turned to me and nodded. I focused my power, shifting it to the destructive one I had tested the night before.I paused, laying in wait until the first car drew close enough that I could make out the driver before I swung, waves of invisible force slamming into the front tires of the first car.

The effect was immediate and dramatic. The nearer tire was shredded along with the metal around it, while the other burst, a large hole torn into it. The driver lost control immediately, the car spinning around a couple of times before coming to rest facing the building I was in. The driver of the back car slammed on the brakes coming to a halt right before she crashed into the first car, which was now blocking the road. Marsh vanished from my sight, while Dream and I leapt out of our cover. He pulled his gun out, immediately pointing it at the driver of the closer car. I dove for the passenger side, shifting my power and hurling a chunk of pavement through the window into the face of the passenger as he went for his gun. He slammed into his surrendering partner, reeling from the hit.I grinned as I heard the sound of a taser firing and a male shout of pain from the car behind us. I reached through the window, and unlocked the car, before climbing in and tying up both the driver and the captive. But that was the end of my luck, as I heard a burst of gunfire, and the world went white with pain.

I came to what couldn't have been more than a second later, gasping in agony as I shifted my power to regeneration to deal with the bruises from the bullets that had hit my armour. Weakly, I lifted my head up to see Dream in a standoff with the guy in the back that had ambushed me, as Marsh fired on the fleeing driver, whole barely dodged a taser shot as she fled. "

Endurance, I thought, and while the pain remained, it became much less important as I hurled myself over the seats, decking the bastard who had shot me. He slammed to the floor, something skidding out of his hand.

It began to speak, "Patrol Seven, report! Answer me, you assho-" I smashed the phone into the floor, where it shattered, and shouted.

"One of them got off a distress signal! We need to get out of here now!" We dragged our unconscious captives to the gutter, where Marsh grabbed two of them and vanished. A second later, she returned for two more, and we grabbed on for her third and final trip as she brought us back.

I fell to the ground as we arrived, the pain returning tenfold as the adrenaline faded and I shifted my power back to regeneration. Alicia rushed over, and the others turned to me, faces full of concern

"I'll be fine." I said through gritted teeth, dully noting as a bullet that had managed to avoid the armour pushed itself through my shoulder. As I watched, a small chunk of flesh pushed itself through the hole, before merging to become one with the skin around it. The pain began to fade with its main source gone, and I managed to push myself to my feet, although not without a wince. I stared at the cluster of tied-up and/or unconscious gangsters.

"We can't keep doing this alone." I said, to no one in particular.

"What do you mean?" Lance said, turning to me.

I sighed, "We all have powers, and all we did was hit a few mooks. One still managed to escape, and if anyone else'd been the one shot, we might be down a member right now. I know you guys don't want to go to the PRT, but we still don't have the firepower to do this ourselves."

"We're not joining the Wards." Alicia snapped immediately.

I shook my head, "I'm not suggesting that. But they are willing to work with independent capes, give them backup sometimes, right?"

Serena nodded "Yeah, sometimes. My-a friend of mine, they were able to join as an affiliate or something."

"But what if they say no?" Lance added. "We are disrupting the balance of power here."

"Then we'll keep trying anyway." I said. "I'm not saying we give up. But we have to try this. I'll go over to their headquarters tomorrow. I'm Protectorate age, hopefully they won't dismiss me immediately. We can hand them these assholes" I gestured to our captives "as well. Not like we have a prison or anything anyway."

Lance sighed, "It's worth a try, if you guys are okay with it?" he turned to the others.

"Yeah, let's do it." Serena said.

Alicia glowered, before mumbling something that sounded like "...Fine."

I went over to the guy who had shot me, pocketing his wallet and lifting him up. "Come on, let's get these guys to...wherever the hell you guys were going to put them. I'm sick of this night."


	6. 1-6

I yawned and stretched as I woke up, glancing at the now-replugged clock as I walked over to the closet, where I was storing a couple sets of civilian clothes I'd picked up the day before. Hanged into one, a simple black shirt with blue jeans, and left, sparing a glance for my poor ruined costume on the way out. The armour was fairly damaged, and the hoodie was all but shredded, having weathered the bullets a lot worse than I had been lucky enough to. I smirked as I left the house, noticing that none of the others had gotten up yet. Lucky bastards. I walked over to the side of the barricade facing the safe half of the city, carefully avoiding the torn-up bits of street in my way. My power briefly shifted to invisibility and I vanished as I climbed over the cars blocking the path, dropping the power as I walked out of the alley into the city.

Before I could go to the PRT, though, I had another stop in mind. Rifling through my wallet to ensure the wallet I had grabbed off of the gangster last night was there, I walked down the street before ducking into the first technology store I saw. Once there, I grabbed a cheap smartphone and bought it, although the bribe it took to get the cashier to accept it without an ID or a bank account took another hundred out of my rapidly-dwindling funds. But it was necessary; if I was going to convince the PRT to break the stalemate and help us, I needed to convince them we were strong enough to make a difference. Right now, I had powers I didn't understand and so little knowledge of the world I couldn't tell you what year it was or what city I was in. I figured I could at the very least do some research, get a basic understanding of things. Leaving the store, I quickly found my way back to the coffee shop from yesterday, where I headed in to do a quick search of things.

Oh, what the fuck. That sentence echoed through my mind over and over again as I paged through what I had found. It was June in 2010, more or less a year before 'canon'. But canon was gone, and 'off the rails' didn't even begin to describe what I had found. The Endbringers were wrong. The Simurgh had appeared first, ripping her way through some sort of portal before descending upon Seattle. The second Endbringer, Teiwaz, appeared a few years later, a weak aerokinetic who had been captured and tortured by Gesselschaft until they transformed and began ripping apart all in their path. The was the biggest change of all, really. The Endbringers weren't constructs this time, Eidolon didn't even exist. The third member of the Triumvirate, Arcana, instead drew runes in the sky to cast various spells, and was classified as an extremely bizarre Tinker/Trump, since he had to create them in advance. The Endbringers didn't come out of nowhere this time. Capes second-triggered into them.

Not all second triggers, not even most, only six so far, but they were capes whose second triggers had...broken, somehow, transforming them into an insane eldritch abomination. The third, Leviathan, had appeared in 1998, his main claim to fame being the discovery we made a few years later in the attack on Kyushu. They could be killed. Lung had transformed into an Endbringer during the fight, but had held to his sanity long enough to tear Leviathan apart before taking his place in the cycle. Teiwaz fell a few years later, and was replaced by a gravity manipulator named Cabrakan. Cabraken himself fell in 2007, and was replaced by Atlach, a giant spider that ripped through capes with smoke tendrils, last year.

Scion didn't exist. That was the other big one. Scion, Eden, 'glowing superhero', nothing returned any results even vaguely related to either of the Entities. How was this possible? Did they not exist? Had both of them died this time?

This...was a lot to take in, and I spent several minutes staring blankly at the phone, vaguely aware of the looks the staff were giving me, before I left the building. In a daze, I found my way to a clothing store (the other main goal of this trip) and lost most of my remaining funds on acquiring some nicer clothing. After purchasing it, I made my way back to my house, where I changed into the suit and found my way to a mirror to begin the final part of this setup.

I knew that if the others were concerned about ending up in the Wards, I was definitely the oldest. But I had a problem; I did not look it. Without an ID to prove it, I would have a lot harder time getting the PRT to take me seriously, an already Herculean task as it was. Which is how I found myself

staring into a mirror, mentally preparing myself for what I was about to do. Shapeshifting, I thought, and I felt a familiar shift as I willed my body to change.

My face began to age, shifting and altering into a reasonable facsimile of myself a few years from now. My torso thinned slightly, as my arms and legs lengthened slightly. Finally, a beard pushed its way onto my face. I stared at the image in the mirror, one that was mine and yet looked nothing like me. Perfect, I thought, leaving the bathroom and heading back towards the barricade. I was halfway there before I realized that the beard I had chosen to form was a goatee-possibly not the best way to convince people I was part of a team of superheroes. A brief moment of concentration later, the hair fell off of most of my face, leaving only a moustache.

After clambering over the barricade, I hailed the first taxi I saw, asking for them to take me to the PRT building. The trip finished off what little money I still had left from the gangster. After a relatively brief trip, we arrived in front of the PRT building. It was surprisingly unimposing, a flat, wide two-story building tat looked, all-in-all, like a police headquarters. I thanked the taxi driver and exited the car, shifting my power again as I did so. Analysis, and my perception of the world changed. Immediately, my newly heightened perception picked out several vantage points and notches in the walls of the PRT building that would seem unobtrusive and unnoticeable to most, but which would provide excellent defensive points, or points to fire at attackers from. Mentally gathering myself for the speech I was going to have to make, I strode into the building.

The receptionist glanced up at me as I entered and walked over to him. "Yes? What do you need?" Busy, harassed with complaints, my power supplied, will get annoyed at a long explanation.

Straight to business then. "I represent a group of parahumans who would like to register for Affiliate Hero status with the PRT."

He quirked up an eyebrow at this. Surprised there are independent heroes left alive, my power added. He reached under the table, pulling out a stack of forms and thumbing through them. Removing most of them and putting them back, he handed the set that remains to me. "Here. Have your team fill these out and bring them back. If you need more you'll need to talk to the director about special limits for the team size. You'll also need to meet with him now, and you'll need to bring your team to meet him when you turn the forms in." He recited, in a rehearsed and apathetic monotone.

I nodded. "The sooner the better. Is he free now?"

The receptionist turned to a schedule pinned to the desk. "Yes, he is. He has an appointment soon, so be quick. Up the stairs behind me, third door on the left."

I thanked him, receiving a noncommittal grunt in return as I made my way up the stairs to a bland, featureless hallway lined with doors. My powers helpfully pointed out the multiple spots concealing defensive turrets in the floor and ceiling as I strode to the end of the hall, where a simple door stood, with the words PRT Director Flenders written on a small plaque on it. I knocked, receiving a sharp "Enter.", and I stepped into the room.

It was a simple office room, with a bookshelf on one side and a switched-off television on the other. In the center was a worn desk with a computer on it, currently manned by a man I could only guess was Director Flenders. The only unusual feature the room possessed was a set of near-unnoticeable notching in the back of the room, notchings that were obviously meant to be seen as decorative on the off chance that someone noticed them, but likely concealed even more defensive measures. The man looked up as I walked into the room. "Welcome to my office." He said. "I'm Director Flenders. I assume you are the hero the front desk informed me about?"

I nodded. "Jon Snow." I said, saying the first alias that popped into my head. He offered his hand and I shook it before continuing, "I'm here to talk to you about the creation of an independent hero team."

"Right, they did mention that." He said "Are you aware what you are getting yourself into? It's not a good time to be an independent hero in this city. The gangs press-gang whoever they don't kill, and there isn't really any place for you to recruit more members from. Whatever your group wishes to accomplish, they could do in the Protectorate as well. With more members, we could turn the tables here." Hopeful, wishes to walk out of this meeting with new Protectorate members.

I shook my head sadly "I'm afraid that's not as possible as we'd both like." Speak like you're on the same side. Establish sympathy. "The majority of our group is...age-challenged, and could not join the Protectorate. They have other reasons as well, but they've kept them concealed."

His eyes narrowed angrily "You're telling me that a bunch of children are trying to get themselves involved in a gang war?"

I shook my head quickly, "A year from being able to join at most. As I said, that is not the main reason they refuse to join."

He shook his head, Angry, disappointed, "Do you know what you are getting into with this? Do you think this is a game?"

"Not in the least. We've been fighting the gangs, we know what to expect."

He smiled ruefully, "I suppose you're going to say that you'll keep going with or without permission."

I shrugged. "I already attempted to talk them into joining you, to no results."

"Bring your team with you in a couple of days when you return the forms. We can test your powers there. If I can be certain that I will not be signing your death warrants, I will allow you to become an affiliate organization. If I cannot, I will not be able to allow you to continue." An offer, and a threat. Willing to bring us in by force if he thinks the alternative is us being killed.

"Very well. I'll bring the offer to the others. If they agree, we will return within a few days time."

Flenders looked me in the eyes, "Be careful. This gang war's killed far too many young men and women who wanted to be heroes. Don't make the same mistakes they did."

"I'll pass that on. Don't worry, we've no intention of attacking anyone anytime soon. By the way, we did capture a few of their members the last night. We would gladly hand them over to you for imprisonment."

"Very well. We'll arrange a pickup later today, if you have a way to contact us?" I held up my phone, and he gave me the number. "Call us later, we'll arrange a meeting place. I have an appointment soon, so if you have anything else to discuss...?"

I shook my head, "No, that's all. Have a nice day." I barely kept myself from snarling as I exited the office.

Once outside, I dug out my wallet to check how much money remained, as was dismayed to find that I was completely broke. This meant to lunch, and, more importantly, that there was no way for me to get a ride back home. Looks like I'm stuck with flying then, I thought, knowing that I would not be able to navigate the city on foot. I grimaced. While I had deeply enjoyed flying and wanted to again, it could attract attention from the gangs that I had no desire to acquire, even if I managed to win the ensuing fight. Still, with no money, no navigational skills, and no way to contact the others, there wasn't much of a choice left open to me.

I headed into a nearby alleyway, wanting to at least find a secluded spot to take off from. Looking around one final time to ensure there was no one who could see me, I willed my power to change, immediately feeling the same sensation of lightness that I had last felt two days ago when this power had saved me from my death. Up, I thought, and felt my powers take me to the skies as I began to drift in thought.

That meeting...could have gone better. While the Director at least hadn't said no outright, he'd all but said he'd force us into joining him if he decided that we couldn't survive on our own. Much as I resent that immensely, he does have a point, I thought to myself as is drifted towards the barricade, unconsciously fingering the part of my shoulder where the bullet had hit last night. Still, the others weren't going to like this at all, especially not Alicia. I didn't know what the PRT had done to earn her anger like that, but it was going to make diplomacy between us and them a lot harder if we didn't do anything to stop it. Maybe contact some of the local Protectorate members directly, I thought, If we can get off-the-books training and assistance, it might not matter so much if we have trouble getting official support. Although that would still leave the issue of how to keep him from forcing us for our own protection. His concern was genuine, or at least faked well enough to fool a low-grade Thinker power he didn't know I had, but there still wasn't a chance that that attempt would lead to anything other than a fight.

My thoughts were cut off as a tall, slender woman in a demon mask floated up in front of me, "There you are! I've been looking for you." Instinctively, I dove to the top of a nearby office tower, cracks spiderwebbing in the roof of the structure as I shifted my power into a kind of telekinesis, preparing to hurl it at her if necessary. She laughed, a surprisingly cheerful sound that clashed with her ominous appearance as she landed lightly on the roof in front of me, a few flickering flames orbiting her hands.

"Nervous much?" she smirked "I'm just here to talk, you don't have to worry." I appeared to relax, although I kept a tight grip on my improvised projectiles-to-be with my power.

"I'm listening."

"I saw you leaving that fascist asshole's office." she said, her voice dropping into a snarl at even the mention of the PRT "Let me guess, he gave you the whole spiel, right? You wanted to protect the city, maybe clean it up some, actually help it instead of sitting around in an ivory tower making token patrols and claiming everything's fine? And he told you that he couldn't allow that, that he'd arrest you and force you to join for trying? That it was for your own good?!" My eyes widened in surprise, before I clamped down on my reactions. This woman, (Belial, I supposed) had good intel. Very good intel. Did the Fifth Circle have a Stranger? A Thinker maybe? Best to play along for now.

"You sound like you're speaking from experience." I remarked noncommittally, looking out of the corner of my eyes for a blur in the air, or anything else that might indicate we were not alone.

She chuckled, "Something like that. Let's just say that I'm as sick of the gangs and the blockade as you are, and I'm a lot more willing to do something about it than those assholes are."

I raised an eyebrow "Sorry for the confusion, I'm new here, but isn't the Fifth Circle one of the gangs?"

She laughed, "Nah, that's just propaganda. What we actually are is a group of free spirits who agree the the Protectorate's failed us, and needs to be replaced. Neither of the other gangs would make better leaders, so we had to do it ourselves. The PRT doesn't want to admit that they're a bunch of fascist assholes!", she shouted that last bit over her shoulder, in the direction of the PRT building "so they labeled us a gang just like the rest."

"I see." I said, unsure of what to make of that speech.

"Not much of a talker, are you?" She smirked, before reaching into her pocket and pulling out a piece of paper, which she threw to me. "It's the number for one of our burner phones. Call me when you decide to make a real difference in this city." With that, she flew away, leaving me standing on a rooftop staring at a plain piece of paper with nothing but a phone number on it. As I reactivated my flight and drifted home, I considered the results of my encounters today, as well as how to tell the others about what I had learned.


	7. 1-7

"He said what!?" Alicia shouted. This...was not going as well as I had hoped. Still, there's no good way to tell someone that someone they hate's threatening them.

"They're going to give us a test." Lance said, practically growling the last word. "Like they're in any position to talk about who's capable of fighting."

"All he wants to do is make sure that we aren't completely incompetent." I said, raising my hands placatingly. "Which we aren't. We should train some, but that'd be a good idea whether or not he wanted to examine ."

"I'm more curious what Belial wanted from us." Serena said, her face curling into the faintest hint of a sneer at the wannabe demon`s name.

"Recruitment, probably." I said, shrugging, "it's probably how she gets people to join her gang in the first place." Demons. Anarchist demon-wannabes. I thought to myself. If anyone had told me about this a week ago, I'd have said they'd gone mad. "You guys said the gangs don't like having independents running around. She's probably trying to get us on her side, or get into a better position to off us if that fails." I continued, before pausing, a thought having occurred to me, "Wait, Belial is the leader, right?"

"No." Our heads all turned in surprise to Alicia, who had spoken. The short blonde seemed a little nervous having everyone focused on her like that, but she continued "She's not the leader, she's the face. The charismatic one, the recruiter. She's too aggressive, too impulsive to hold a gang together on her own. Combine that with the fact that the Circle have one member no one knows anything about, it fits too well not to be true."

"No one knows anything about them?" I asked.

"Not what she looks like, not her power." Alicia confirmed. "Just the name, Paimon. Probably some sort of Thinker, or a memory-erasing Stranger." I winced internally. That was something I did not want to have to deal with against me.

"Anyway," I said, "whatever either of their reason objectives with us are, the fact is that we should train with our powers some more. Serena, you can teleport around and flood areas, right?" She nodded. "How fast can you convert part of an area?" She lifted her arm, pointing at a spot in the road. Immediately, the pavement ripped apart, a crack forming and widening as it began to fill with water. "Not bad. Do you think you could trip people with that?"

She shrugged noncommittally. "Maybe. I haven't tried it before." I turned to Lance, and opened my mouth to speak, but before I could my right foot shot out from under me, into a rapidly flooding crack in the pavement.I dragged myself to my feet to see the three of them laughing, Serena in particular having fallen to the ground laughing her ass off.

Chuckling, I flipped her off, "Someone other than me, jackass." At least we'd gotten off the subject of the PRT. I needed to remember to find out why Alicia hated the PRT so much at some point, that had the potential to cause a lot of problems for us down the line.

I turned back to Lance. "So, Lance..." I began, before realizing something important I needed to know, "what the hell is your power, anyway?"

He looked at me. "I can control people's dreams in a radius around me. Give them nightmares, good dreams-"

Serena cut in "Sexy dreams, weird dreams, dreams about being stuck in high school math..." she ducked instinctively as Lance's shoe went sailing through where her head had been.

He turned back to me "There's...something else, too. But I'll only even consider using it if things get really bad, and I'm sure as hell not practicing it now."

"Okay then..." I said, my common sense outfighting my curiosity. "I guess just marksman training in your case then." I turned to Alicia "You can sense things near water in a radius around you, I know that, but can you use your Thinker power to help aim at all? "

"Somewhat." she said "It doesn't help too much."

"Damn." I replied. "Still, would be a good power for a sniper, if we could get our hands on a rifle." She nodded, considering the idea.

"As for me, I should probably pick an offensive power or two and stick with it for now, until I get better at using my power as a whole." I focused my power, switching to hydrokinesis and lifting some of the water out of the nearby puddles. Forming a compact sphere of water, I hurled it into a nearby wall, where it splashed harmlessly. Hmmm, that didn't work, I thought to myself, reshaping the water into a thin wire that orbited me several times, before slamming it into the pavement. The water fell apart, again with no noticeable effect. One last try with this, I thought, controlling only a tiny fraction of the wire from last time, and slamming it into the ground yet again, this time focusing the majority of my control on holding the construct together. The pavement cracked, and I was barely able to hold the water construct together. The others had begun to practice as well during this time, Lance having set up a target and begun firing at it, while Alicia was repeatedly charging Serena, who would attempt to tear the ground apart in such a way as to knock her down before she cold reach her.

"Not bad, but a bit weak. Maybe a different material..." I said to myself, walking over to a nearby streetlight. I shifted my power, feeling for something that could shape metal, before reaching out to the pole. It began to liquefy, flowing into new shapes on the ground as I concentrated. The substance, not quite liquid, shifted in my hands as I altered it. Ten minutes later I stood, mentally exhausted from the concentration, with a set of daggers and a long coil of thin metal wire, each individual strand almost impossible to see as I sat there on the ground.

I exchanged my power for some kind of telekinesis, grabbing first the pair of daggers, which I floated in front of me. Making a sort of...hurling motion, I sent them flying into a nearby house wall, where they buried themselves. Not bad, I thought, grabbing the wire next. I looked for a suitable target, before settling on another streetlight in the opposite direction of the others from me. Raising my arms, I brought them down in an 'x' motion as the opposite ends of the wire slammed into the post, and sliced through it almost instantly. The others looked up from their training in surprise as the bits of the post crashed loudly to the ground.

I gazed at the post in shock. While there had certainly been some damage expected from this tactic, I had not been expecting anything near that level of power. "Guess that' it for that thing." I said, a lot more confidently than I felt. The water had been too useless to fight with, but this was too far in the opposite direction. I had no way of using that on an ordinary human without shearing them in two.

I shifted yet again, settling on a form of aerokinesis which seemed to focus on creating and maintaining air constructs. A large stick coalesced out of the air, and immediately swung at a nearby wall. It impacted with a satisfying thud, and a notable lack of visible damage to the structure. Not bad, should be able to use that against humans in some way, I thought. We really need to get some training dummies in here. I looked around, as the others had gotten back to their own practice in the meantime. Serena was pulling a laughing Alicia to her feet, having managed to steadily trip her during the last few attempts. Lance, meanwhile, was continuing to practice firing, and had managed to hit his target a bit more consistently. We continued on like this for another hour or so, in which Lance and Alicia traded off and she began her marksmanship training, and I practiced with the air and metal control. Finally, we all met back up in the dining room of the house I had taken up residence in, exhausted but happy.

Serena laughed, offering her hand to Alicia as we walked in. "Would you like me to help you to your chair? You seem to be having some trouble walking lately." She smirked.

Alicia laughed, reaching up to lightly slap her upside the head. "Shut up! You were falling over more than me at the start. If anyone needs help walking, it's Lance. You tripped him way more."

"Oh, surrrrre, pick on the guy who had to do it after she'd practiced." Lance replied "By the way, Alicia, the target said to thank you for missing so much."

"Now now children, let's not fight." I smirked.

"You're like a year older than us." Serena pointed out.

"And don't you forget it!" I replied, sticking my tongue out at them. We all laughed.

"Now that we're all feeling a bit more confident in our powers," Lance continued "Who'd be up for a raid on a drug warehouse tonight?"

I turned to him "One of the ones we captured talked?"

He nodded "The one that shot you, actually. He gave us the address in exchange for us letting him go instead of giving him to the PRT."

"We're not actually honouring that, are we!?" Serena said, with surprising vehemence.

"Of course not," Lance laughed, before his expression darkened quickly "After all, he shot one of our friends." He turned to me. "You talked to the PRT about taking them off our hands, right?"

I nodded. "Yyyep. They gave me a contact number and everything. Was figuring I'd take care of that soon, before I shapeshift back into myself."

"That reminds me," Alicia interjected "Why do you still look like that?"

I shrugged "Shapeshifting takes effort, and I'm lazy. Anyway, let's get this over with." I shifted over to a strength power. "I can carry them over. Serena, mind teleporting me to an area near a payphone?"

She nodded.

She dropped the captives and me off in a dead-end alley with a pay-phone at the other end. I fished in my pocket for a quarter, and sunk it into the machine as I dialed the number the director had given me. The phone rang twice before it was picked up.

"PRT Director Flenders speaking."

"This is Jon Snow" I said, expecting any second to be called out on the obvious alias. "I've got the criminals I mentioned to you earlier.""

"Understood. We've traced the call, and we'll be sending a Protectorate member to pick them up. Plume's patrolling in the area, she'll be over in a minute." He then hung up. I didn't need a thinker power active to see the blatant power play there, but it did help. Obvious attempt to display the power of the PRT and Protectorate. Attempt to impress us, convince us that it would be better to join them.

A few minutes of waiting later, a woman with multicoloured, feathered hair and a bird mask dropped out of the sky, landing in front of the alley. She walked over to us "So you're Snow." She turned to Serena, "and you must be one of the others on his team.

She nodded "Marsh Queen." she said, extending her hand, which Plume shook.

"Not bad," she said, surveying the four criminals kneeling ziptied in the alley. "Always good to see more scum like these off the streets." She turned back to us "Have you considered joining the Protectorate? We could use more people to help get things done."

"I can't." Serena replied "I'd end up in the Wards, I'm too young."

Plume smirked. "You could lie." She said. "It's what I did a few years ago when I joined." Serena appeared to be considering it, much to my dismay. Plume turned to me "What about you? You're obviously old enough."

I shrugged. "I can't either. It's a...long story."

I was saved from having to elaborate further by an outburst from one of the criminals behind me. "This is bullshit! You assholes told us you'd let us go if we told you where the warehouse was!"

I turned to him, glaring, the faintest hint of fire forming around my hand as my power shifted. "And if you hadn't used me as a bullet catcher yesterday, I'd be more inclined to give a shit. For now, shut up and stop whining." His eyes widined in fear, and he fell silent.

Plume spoke up. "Not bad, kid. Where is this warehouse? I might 'accidentally' go a bit off patrol tonight." Serena grinned as she gave her address. Plume laughed "That's pretty deep in the barricade. I'll have to get really turned around to make it there." She winked.

The arrival of police cars outside the alley told us the PRT was here to collect the prisoners. Plume said her goodbyes, and took off into the sky. The officers came into the alley and began to haul the criminals away as Serena and me walked over to the pool of water, and I felt a familiar sucking sensation as I was pulled through.


	8. 1-8

It was a cold and rainy night as we lurked outside the warehouse. An ominous night, reeking of potential events. This was a night where it was almost set into fate that something bad was going to happen to someone. On the plus side for us, we would at least have the chance to be that thing, rather than fall victim to it.

Taking a deep breath, I shifted my power back into the razor wind claws, tearing through the doors and ripping them off their hinges as I stepped into the warehouse that we had been told was the main Lords warehouse for drug distribution in the district. I smirked as I walked into the warehouse, a frozen tableu of depravity that had halted in an instant at my entrance. A room to the side swung open a minute later, another gangster backing out at the point of Eye's gun as Dream and Marsh pointed their weapons at the room. "This is your friendly neighborhood watch!" I shouted, grinning beneath my mask and tattered hood. "We're here to arrest people and set things on fire. Surrender, or we'll hit you in the face."

"That means you, in the back, with the assault rifle!" Eye shouted. I noticed a small puddle that had been ripped in the floor of the room that she was standing in. "Don't think we can't see you! You already saw what he can do to a wall. What do you think that'll do to you if he uses it?" I heard something clatter to the ground.

"Alright." Dream said, covering the main cluster of people with his pistol as he stepped further into the room. " Show us where you're keeping the drugs."

"And throw us your wallets!" Marsh added. Dream looked like he was resisting the urge to facepalm.

"They-they're in the back." The unlucky gangster who had had the rifle managed to stammer out. "I'll have to go get them."

"Fine" Dream said "Don't try anything, or we'll know. Keep the door open." I switched to the metallokinesis, and the wire settled loosely around his neck as he pushed his way into the back.

Things were quiet for half a minute or so, until Eye suddenly shouted. "Shit! There's Injectors in the back!" This news seemed to panic our captives almost as much as it did the rest of us, as they immediately broke for cover or dove behind couches and chairs. One stumbled to the ground and fell-Marsh's handiwork-as we did the same. I shifted back to the claws, and took a few haphazard swings at their side of the warehouse as I ran, ripping through some of their cover and scattering a fine white powder over several of the members.

The gangers began to open fire as the others did the same, Marsh tazing the one Eye had been holding at gunpoint as her and Dream began to trade fire with the others. The ones covered in what I could only presume was cocaine began to fire erratically from the small amount they had inhaled, except for one who had gotten an entire faceful, who collapsed to the ground, grinning at nothing and laughing to herself.

One asshole in the back threw a grenade, which I hastily swung at, slicing it apart and detonating it harmlessly in the air. One of the ones with assault rifles, staggered, falling on his ass as his foot fell into a deepening pit in the ground. Another couple of swings from me tore apart a large amount of the remaining gangsters' cover, and I winced as one fell, their leg having been caught in one of the swipes.

That was when the Injectors came out. Deformed, muscle-bound behemoths at least ten feet tall hurled themselves out of the back room, barreling rapidly in our direction. Most of the remaining gangsters fled as the monsters charged through their lines in a blind fury, bar a few who had decided to hide in a corner and wait the whole thing out. Serena vanished, taking the others to a puddle she had formed on the other side of the room as they opened fire on the creature.

It veered off as I switched back to metallokinesis, bringing up my wire to trip the one still barreling at me. It worked, the creature beginning to trip over it, but before the wire could do more than lightly cut into its skin, it hurled itself forward, launching itself into a powerful leap in my direction. Flight, I thought, propelling myself backwards and up into the rafters a second before the creature slammed down, shattering the ground in front of me.

Marsh, Dream, and Eye continued to teleport around the room, firing round after round into the creature's extremities as it charged them, apparently lacking the mental capacity to do more than blindly rush its foes. Mine seemed to retain a bit more mental capability, and I swiftly propelled myself backwards and to the ground as a shelving unit smashed into the roof where I had been. I switched to the air constructs, forming a large blunt construct in the air before slamming it downwards on the creature as hard as I could. It staggered, before roaring as it regained its footing as it charged me, hurling another shelf as it did. I shifted to a speed power, but was still hurled backwards as the shelving unit clipped me, sending me rolling over into the wall.

The creature slowed to a halt as it reached me, laughing insanely to itself as it balled its fist up to deliver a final blow. I readied the aerokinesis, throwing out a taunt as I did, "Hey, ugly, try punching yourself in the face a few times. It'd be an improvement."

Much to my surprise, the creature threw its head back and laughed, "Words will not protect you, weakling!"

I shrugged, floating back to my feet, "Yeah, but I just said that so she could get behind you." The creature's head snapped around to behind it, and I switched back to the claws in an instant, swiping them and leaving several long, bloody gashes in the creature's back as it roared in agony. I followed up with a switch back to the constructs, swinging a semi-blunt construct into the head of the creature, and it dropped to the ground, hopefully just unconscious.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the others staring warily at the other Injector, which had fallen to the ground under the weight of its injuries and bullet wounds. I stared in horror as the two of them began to shrink down, their wounds fading along with the muscles and deformities as they reverted to a human state. I looked at the others in shock, "These things are people?" I felt sick as I looked back to where the one I was fighting had fallen, and recalled what Distortion had looked like on the first day I arrived.

"Yeah." Marsh said, her voice tinged with barely-contained fury. "One of Steroid's serums. It makes you powerful, but it's horribly addictive. Most people die if they stop taking it after the first two or three times." She said, bitterly.

Suddenly, one of the Injectors-the one the others had defeated- snapped awake with a start, and looked around in confusion. "Where am I? Who are you people? Where's Jean? We were supposed to meet up after class." This guy was still in school? I thought. He has to be in his mid twenties at least.

"Brain damage." Dream said, answering my unasked question. "Most people sustain it from their first doses. Not Parahumans, though. He sounds like he's lost everything since either college or high school. Hopefully the former."

"How do they get people to agree to it?" I asked, almost dreading the answer.

"They don't." Serena snarled. "Injectors are usually captives, or the homeless living outside the barricades." I stared in horror. Reading about things like this, that was bad enough, but actually seeing it, seeing this man, broken and confused...no. This would not stand. I would put an end to it.

My thoughts were disrupted by the arrival of Plume, who startled us as she walked into the warehouse. "Looks like I missed the party." She said, laughing, before cutting off abruptly as she saw the mix of sadness and fury that covered our faces.

I walked over the over of the willing gangsters, who had been cowering in the corner. "Where are you assholes keeping the drugs here?" I snarled, glaring at him.

"In the crates" he said, eyes locked onto mine in terror as he gestured to the crates that lined the back wall and collapsed shelves of the room.

"Thanks for the help." I said, reaching into my power for pyrokinesis as I walked over to one of the crates. "You're all under arrest, by the way, so don't fucking try to run." I turned to the others, "Let's grab these assholes and get out of here."

As the four of us walked to one of Marsh's teleport pools outside the warehouse, I took a look back to examine my handiwork. Those we had fought were gone, taken away by a small PRT chopper. The warehouse burned, the smoke from the drugs I had ignited rising into the air. My thoughts echoed those I had burned into the street outside as we vanished through the portal. No more. An oath, a promise, and a threat. The Lords would fall.


End file.
